08/22/11 “Gathering in the Face of Instability: A Parable for our Time” 

Last night’s dreams were filled with awakenings, both physical and perceptual.  The physical ones were easily remedied with another pillow or a trip to the loo. The perceptual ones were less easily ignored. One dream caught my attention as I, in my dream persona of Amazon Sage, found myself transported to a small cafe in anytown USA. 

There, young adults gather to talk, text, and jumpstart their day with a cup of java.  The scene is reminiscent of a much earlier time (I’ve heard tales),  when people who worked downtown gathered at a central square or farmers’ market before surrendering to the day’s work. In fact, this cafe sits directly across from some of those very same buildings where earlier city dwellers discussed the state of their lives. Only the facades have changed.

As I gaze at nearby tables, I see young hikers, apparently rock climbers, freshly arrived from parts unknown. As they push back disheveled hair and tighten efficient backpacks one quietly speaks with the team about their day’s events. Nodding toward a structure, directly across the street, all smile mischievously. My gaze follows their own and I am taken in by the beauty of an old building standing not more than 30 feet away.  In the early light of day, she stands tall, an elegant lady of by-gone years, still quite beautiful in her twilight years.

I know she has recently been given a facelift of multi-shaped bricks, because they are more colorful than those originally stacked. I suppose it was in an attempt to enhance her natural beauty, and ironically, to make her look more historic. I wonder why the renovators of this wonderful old structure didn’t simply peel off the worn out stucco that, since the 1960s,  has so rudely blotted out her original grandeur. As I ponder this question, I am startled by the climbers. Almost magically, they are now standing directly in front of that grande dame, preparing to scale her heights! 

A few climbers are already digging their fingers into the fresh sutures of her recent facelift. Others are hoisting heavy ropes across her shoulders and around her neck. Immediately, I am filled with consternation. Do these climbers not know of her delicate condition? Do they not even care that her true strength lies buried behind these seductive layers of false fronts? Before I have time to warn them, the climbers are 30, then 40 feet in the air.

The grand lady, so long ignored behind the facade of other men’s opinions has finally had enough. First, one brick, then another, she begins throwing off these new additions that have attracted the young skalywags. This seductive packaging has not made her stronger, it only serves to hide what is truly worth keeping. Along with the bricks, the young climbers begin to fall. Head over heels they fall, losing everything in an instant.What they did not know is that behind all the fancy packaging lives a soul of grace and honor. That is where the real strength lies. The outside glitz of others’ imaginations is only for show and profit, eventually toppling from the weight of its own lies. 

Suddenly, I awake and wonder, “Is this what is happening in our society at large? To our financial institutions, to political parties, and to our ability to get things done in our government? Have we become so enamored with what is new and fast and easy, that we have forsaken the foundation on which this country was once built? Hmmm. Time to wake up.

“Lost Souls of the Virtual World”

Good morning, friends.

After writing “The Case of the Disappearing Minds,” I decided to travel deeper into the virtual world of social networking in search of other lost souls. I  discovered more than a few… people living in semi darkened rooms, faces virtually glued to a bright screen, losing sight and losing touch with their own humanity.  I asked Amazon Sage if she might dream travel to the homes of some of these good people to see what creats such angst.

From Australia, to Russia, Western Africa, to the Americas, Amazon Sage appeared where ever people were suffering. She visited the homes of tsunami survivors, homeless folks, working stiffs, and the disabled. She even peeked into the sweat lodges of a few Indigenous people, the bedrooms of the depressed, the cubicles of customer service reps, and the bathroom stalls of... (Uh, on this blog, I won’t go there.) What she discovered may surprise the uninitiated. 

Paradoxically, she found that those who had been most devastated by Tsunami, tornado, and war, were most fully engaged in living life… outside the machine. Fighting daily to survive, they had no time for what many referred to as the “the giant time suck”. That is because so many of these courageous people continue to experience their own personal tsunami long after the news reporters leave. Most have no time for the frivolity or dramas of unknown others. With a smile, Amazon Sage left them to their good works.

Next, Amazon Sage dream traveled to the alleyways, cars, and cheap hotels that have become home to the homeless. When possible, some of these folks valiantly try to get online, through their local library or shelter, to find jobs or reconnect with relatives. However, most are so confronted by their tragic plight, that simply existing from one day to the next takes up all their energies. These folks must daily hunker down and focus on getting out of extreme weather and finding enough to eat.

People who were gainfully employed, especially if they had families to care for, were another group unlikely to get caught in the web of virtuality for endless hours each day. When asked about their life online, most looked blankly, as if to say “And when am I supposed to do that?” Uh, okay… But it was also  here, that Amazon Sage managed to pick up the trail of other secret groups of net dwellers. For example, some of these working people are not put off by the necessity of regularly checking what FB friends are saying or Twitter followers are tweeting. These are people who regularly forego precious hours of sleep or vital communion with family and friends, in favor of the virtual world. Wow. 

As the old childhood game used to say, “We’re getting warm… and where there’s warmth, there’s likely to be a fire somewhere out there.” So, one might ask, who does spend the most time chatting, farming, complaining, or championing. Amazon Sage sniffed the air and it wasn’t long before the fire found its way to her site. 

Almost without warning, she entered places where some of the hottest sites flamed… and when I say hot, I don’t mean as in physically attractive. Some of these sites appear to transcend all other life circumstances as they gather forces -- for good, and in some cases,  for evil. Some sites use code or other strange ways to avoid detection by the powers that be.  Others speak outright with outrage and fierce courage. All call out to a world of seeming complacency to do something. In most cases the person who yells the most forcefully is the one who internally, believes he or she suffers most. That is a place where Amazon Sage stopped for awhile since many lost souls of the internet seem to live there.

Another place of suffering was found in sites encouraging spirituality. While many of these people work hard and struggle valiantly to transcend their limitations, reaching out in today’s world; others continue to fight for a return to a time that never was… where everyone gets along and no one insults their neighbor.  Good luck with that, my friends.

Perhaps the saddest sites were the ones where the people who congregated, have been disabled by the vagaries of life. Trying to understand their plight, they cry “Why me?”  To that I simply respond, “Why not?” 

For it matters not how one defines one’s spirituality (or lack thereof), life happens to us all. With seeming reckless abandon, some good people are hit with death, others with disease, some suffer divorce, while others suffer rejection. Just ask the people who recently suffered some of the worst natural disasters in modern history. Being human, subjects every one of us to life’s contingencies. 

It is the belief of those most wise that is not what happens to us that matters so much as how we choose to perceive it and then how we choose to live with it.  Yes, we choose how we want to live by inviting in hope and joy or by embracing despair and dread. It is our conscious choices that make the difference between whether we continue needless suffering or begin to heal. 

Those among us who are least likely to experience healing are the “Why me?” group.  Indeed, most major teachings and spiritual traditions tell us that it is our ability to travel beyond the hopelessness and helplessness of the moment that determines our future. Beyond the confines of our feelings of betrayal and hurt, we must reach out in hope and we will be blessed. Today, I want to say to all of my brothers and sisters, I send you hope and the belief that together we can create peace in our hearts. Aho.